How Plants (growing, consuming, and composting) are the future

Plants, in addition to having nutritional and aesthetic value, might just be the key to combating our current climate crisis. From the myriad of benefits of gardening, eating a plant-based diet and composting, the role of plants in our lifestyles is more paramount than ever.

Growing

Who knew planting plants was important? Besides carbon capture, growing your own plants is an excellent way to help cut down on production waste of your food, reduce pesticide and fertilizer use, and simultaneously reap benefits for your mental as well as physical health. The National Wildlife Federation reports that if all of America’s 85 million gardening households planted a single shade tree in their backyard, those trees would absorb more than 2 million tons of C02 annually. Moreover, growing your own food helps cut down on transportation costs and wastes; for reference, food that we typically buy travels an average of 1500 miles in the United States and products imported from around the globe. Hence, if you are growing your own food, you are cutting down substantially on the carbon emissions involved in the transportation of your food.

Additionally, growing your own food is a great way to discourage pesticide and fertilizer use. According to the EPA, sales of pesticides in the United States for commercial food production are over $15 billion annually and over $19 billion for fertilizer. That’s an incredible amount of synthetic chemicals going into our food stock. The practice of artificially supporting monoculture food production with chemical treatments depletes the rich soil, without which we can have no good food. 

But some of the best benefits of gardening have less to do with the environmental impacts and more of the personal ones. Gardening has been linked to supporting your physical strength, heart health, weight, sleep, and immune system. According to healthline, gardening can also cultivate feelings of empowerment, connection, and creative calm; and physiologically, gardening helps you get sufficient vitamin D through increased sun exposure which can help you fight off diseases and be helpful with stress.

Consuming

Alongside growing plants, eating a diet based on plants is highly beneficial to your health– as well as the environment! The United Nations cites eating a plant-based diet as one of the top ways an individual can help combat the climate crisis, as producing plant-based foods requires less energy, land, water and greenhouse emissions. In fact, The UN identifies plant-based diets “as a major opportunity for mitigating and adapting to climate change,” and urges countries to adopt policies to limit meat consumption. Moreover, a study from Oxford University identified going vegan as the “single biggest way” we can reduce our carbon footprint.

The production of meat and animal products emits so many emissions through the clearing of forests to make way for animal pasture and the production of animal feed to nourish livestock. Furthermore, an immense amount of waste is generated by cows, pigs, chickens, and other farm animals. For example, methane, a gas roughly 70 times more potent than carbon dioxide, is produced by cows.

Joseph Poore, leader of the study at Oxford states that “Converting grass into (meat) is like converting coal to energy. It comes with an immense cost in emissions.” Whereas, producing plant-based meat emits up to 90% fewer greenhouse gasses than producing conventional meat, according to the Independent.

Eating a plant-based, or vegan, diet isn’t easy and it isn’t for all lifestyles. But fortunately, it’s getting easier with each passing day. Currently, about 22% of the world’s global population is vegetarian and the meat substitute market is worth more than $1.4 billion. Vegetarianism and veganism, coinciding with concern for the climate, is growing in popularity.

Composting

After gardening and eating plant-based, composting is the final piece. Composting is a huge way to make a difference in global emissions– and it doesn’t take a lot to do. According to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), if all Americans composted, the effect would be equal to taking 7.8 million cars off the road. And all you need is a little green bin and some food scraps to start.

Composting is so important because it combats a larger issue: food waste. According to Feeding America, roughly 40% of food in America is wasted; and approximately one-third of a landfill’s contents are compostable material, according to CalRecycle. The issue with this, aside from billions of dollars wasted on food that is ultimately never consumed, is the inability for food to decompose properly in the landfill.

When compostable material is in the landfill with inadequate oxygen, it decomposes anaerobically and releases methane into the atmosphere; whereas, if that compostable material was composted instead, it would have decomposed aerobically with sufficient oxygen with no notable environmental effects.

If you’re passionate about our planet, or looking for some nutritious additive to your soil, the New York Times recommends some great kitchen compost bins.

            Ultimately, whether you're eating, gardening with, or composting plants, you’re on the right path. These three simple practices, however you choose to incorporate them in your life, can make a world of difference for our planet and for you.

Grace Frei Gehrman, Junior, Redwood High School, Larkspur, CA (class of 2025)

Learn more about why it is important to compost your food scraps by clicking here https://www.paintedbins.org/the-problem